Protests in Brazil and The World Cup

Brazilians start protesting.

Brazil is the largest economy as well as the most populous country in Latin America. For the past decade Brazil has been a model of robust growth, but the country is still unable to provide to it citizens adequate educational and health services. Favelas, where 6 percent of Brazils population lives are low-income areas, where violence and lack of education is popular. These neighborhoods are home to not only people of very limited means, but to drug lords who basically run the zones, using children as tools to sell their merchandise. Architecture plays a key role in this event, due to the face that transportation costs have increased and the quality of healthcare and education have decreased due to the vast amount of money the government has been spending in stadiums for the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

Public transportation costs in Brazil went from $3.00 Reales to $3.20. Being that the people living in favelas are the ones who mainly use public transportation, it is safe to say that the increase in $0.20 Reales is a lot of money for them. Having little to no education limits these people in getting a decent job where the salary is enough for them to live comfortably. Living under these conditions has been hard on the people, since their budget has become even tighter than it was before.

The decrease in healthcare quality is another issue that has come up during these protests. Hospitals in Brazil are free for anyone because the government funds them. Being that not enough capital is being invested in hospitals and health care, its quality of service as well as hospital quality itself, have decreased in quality making it impossible for people to receive the care and attention they deserve.

Unfortunately, in recent months the economy has shown signs of trouble such as decrease in growth, devaluation of local currency, rising inflation and interest rates all of which puts more pressure to the well being of the population.

One of the largest protest movements in Brazil started in June of 2013. Protests have increased in important cites such as Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, and Recife among others, due to the anger and frustration citizens have felt toward several of the government’s economic decisions. A sense of hierarchy is seen in this event, due to the fact that these protests have been in the large part, taking place in important cities. This demonstrates that urbanization and the metropolis allow people to express themselves in large masses. About one million Brazilians living across 80 countries have been gathering in the streets due to the rising costs of public transportation, lack of public services, as well as the decrease of quality in hospitals and education, due to the vast amount of money being invested into stadiums and all the infrastructures that are needed for the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

Peaceful protests have turned into revolts, resulting in several tragedies around the country, but people stay true to their beliefs in that the government is being corrupt by not informing the people about the use of their money. Dilma Rousseff, Brazil’s current president has not been putting forth enough money towards schools and education around the country, thus resulting in lack of teachers because they are not being paid, as well as school quality. The people are aware of this and are striking out on the streets asking for their voices to be heard, but policemen have answered by using rubber bullets and tear gas. This has turned protests into violent revolts.

Arena Pantanal is one of the Stadiums that are now being built for the 2014 World cup. This stadium is located in the city of Cuiaba and it holds about 43,000 people. The design concept for this project was to have nature within the stadium. This green building will be part of a complex where citizens will be able to enjoy parks, restaurants, a lake and playground. It is true that a lot of money has been invested into these soccer stadiums, but this will not only enhance the urban city into bringing people outside and having them interact with nature, but will bring people together through Brazils one and only passion, soccer. Another stadium is Arena da Amazonia, which is now under construction, will also gather enormous amounts of people who have the same passion for soccer. These stadiums will make Brazilians feel proud about hosting the most important soccer event in the world, when they get to experience the excitement of a World Cup game in their country. Even though protests have been formed all around Brazil due to lack of government communication with the people, it is safe to say that pride as will unite the nation during the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

The investment in the necessary infrastructures for the World Cup will bring benefits to the country, if they are designed to be flexible in that they are able to be used for many different events not only for soccer. These infrastructures that are being built such as housing as well as the fixing of roads and the construction of new stadiums will encourage young people to invest their energies in sports such as soccer. The people will use these new areas on a day-to-day basis, enhancing their quality of life.

Tourism on the other hand will bring a lot of money into the country during the World Cup. The investments that are being made now will be compensated by the income the country will receive through tourism, especially during summer of 2014.

The government is thinking about the future of the country and how having such infrastructures will enrich the country in many ways, these being aesthetically as well as improving the quality of life of citizens. Brazilians will have access to many facilities to which they do not now in days.

Brazil is not satisfied with the rise of transportation costs, bad education, bad health services, and high taxes. This increase in transportation and taxes has been known to happen due to vast amount of money being used for the 2014 FIFA WORLD CUP as well as the 2016 Olympics. It has been said by the Brazilian people that a corrupt government is governing them; therefore they are and have been living for the past years in a country of corruption. The people want to be heard and they feel that the government does not care about what they have to say, which has lead peaceful protests to turn into violent ones.

Many citizens are exhausted with how little the government seems to care so little about them and they want to be heard; this giving examples of deaths that could have been avoided and how the police enforcement don’t care about being brutal. The development of the city could have been so extravagant if the money spent on soccer was spent on the city and its people.

The protests or the protestors haven’t affected the government. The protests have not made any sort of damper on the date or time of the World Cup or the Olympics. To the government, these events are a large part of Brazil’s legacy and should not be interrupted by what the citizens say. According to the article, the best way of crowd control is to have meetings regarding the protests and just have police enforcement hold the protestors back.

Health care in Brazil has decreased enormously due to the vast amount of money that is being invested into the construction of stadiums for the World Cup as well as the Confederations Cup which are being held in Brazil.

“PressTV – Protests against Corruption, Income Inequality Held in Brazil.” Protests against Corruption, Income Inequality Held in Brazil. Web. 05 Sept. 2013. <http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/08/31/321453/anticorruption-protests-held-in-brazil/>.

The protestors are doing wild things to prove their anger, such as looting a bank and blockading the streets for numerous reasons such as in less work hours. These protests with violent things are spreading to 80 or more cities, which proves how bad that the government is structured.

The values of the government are way off when it comes to budget. Most of the lower class as well as the medium to upper class citizens gathered outside of the soccer stadium in a rioted protest to show their anger. It was unanticipated to see how wealthier people are affected by the cost of transportation or even the school system.

Protests in Brazil started out in the city of Sao Paulo due to the rise of transportation costs. Protests started out peacefully, but later on became violent protests. As mentioned in the article, “ Police lost control and started using rubber bullets against protestors and journalists covering the event.” As violence started to have a presence in these protests, other protests started to break out due to the violence that erupted in the country.

The country of Brazil is the fifth largest country in the world, and occupies almost half of continental South America. Brazils major cities are Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Brasilia, Porto Alegre, and Recife among others. Brasilia, being one of the world’s most modern cities, has created a stable economy. Standard living is stable, due to regular Government employment. Unlike Brasilia, Rio de Janeiro is a city of transportation, communication, cultural, journalistic and military activity. Due to the fact that Rio de Janeiro is a much older city than Brasilia, it is a city in which Brazilian culture is very much present.

There has been a rise in transportation costs from R$3.00 to R$3.20. The people are not ok with the rise of transportation costs. Protests have broken out in 11 cities due to the fact that the country wants better public resources, better education, and a better health system. These protests started out in a peaceful manner, but have turned into violent protests in some cases where the military police has used tear gas and rubber bullets to scare people away, thus harming them in the process and created a revolt with the people. The president of Brazil spoke and criticized the violence that had taken place in the country, but says it is all part of democracy.

Over 65,000 people in Sao Paulo and 100,000 in Rio de Janeiro have goen out to the streets in protest for their country. Living in a country filled with corruption where the government has increased transportation costs as well as taxes due to high expenses on the 2014 FIFA WORLD CUP. As taxes and transportation costs have risen, education, healthcare and transportation quality have gone down.

The government is doing anything to make ends meet including cutting many employees-including some that work that for the government. This includes employees that work in the legislative and the two other branches- and without them the country cannot expand or build upward. The strike taken place for one day showed their emotions about that.